Bizarre plan for MPs to sit on FERRIES in the Thames during Parliament renovation

HMS Parliament could provide a temporary home for MPs during the Westminster repairs

By Phoebe Cooke

12th January 2018, 11:13 am

Updated: 12th January 2018, 12:09 pm

PMQS could get even wobblier after incredible plans to shift Parliament to ferries on the Thames were submitted to MPs.

A London firm of architects have put forward their "HMS Parliament" as a low-cost answer to the problem of where politicians will go when the Palace of Westminster closes for essential repairs.

Studio Octopi

The three ferries could be recycled into a new floating Parliament

Three diesel Woolwich ferries due to be decommissioned this year would be stripped down to floating pontoons able to carry debating chambers for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The incredible concept was thought up by marine engineer Tim Beckett, who realised that the existing chambers would almost exactly fit on the huge decks of the 1963 ferries.

The plans by architect Studio Octopi and structural engineer Expedition - which could be delivered in just 12 months - include two-fullsized chambers, voting lobbies, committee rooms, a central lobby and "dynamic vistas of the Thames".

Credit: Julio Etchart / Alamy Stock Photo

Three Woolwich ferries could provide the base of a new floating Parliament

Studio Octopi

The plans show the construction of the chambers on the floating Parliament

The draft stresses that being moored right next to Parliament would "maintain the physical link with the Palace of Westminster" and would "give passersby a view of democracy in action".

At £55million, the overall cost would be much lower than alternative proposals, since the Woolwich ferries are in public ownership.

Current plans to demolish the Department of Health and build a permanent “spare” Commons chamber would cost in the region of £1billion more, while previous plans for floating chamber with a glass-roofed rat would have cost a whopping £160million.

Architect and Studio Octopi director Chris Romer-Lee, 46, praised the "innovative" solution as an example of sustainable engineering in a troubled world.

"We are very hopeful this will be taken on," he said.

"We've got three vessels in perfectly good nick and this is a great way to reuse these three great lumps of steel.

"The river is the lifeblood of the city - what could be better than to have the politicians sitting right in the veins of the capital?"

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